Siena’s Anosike headed to Portsmouth Invitational

Siena senior forward O.D. Anosike will play in the Portsmouth (Va.) Invitational for professional prospects from April 10-13, the college announced today.

He’ll be the ninth Siena player since 2000 to participate at Portsmouth, and the first since former teammate Ryan Rossiter two years ago. Rossiter now plays for the Canton Charge of the NBA Development League.

Here’s the Siena news release:

Siena senior forward O.D. Anosike has accepted an invitation to attend the Portsmouth Invitational Torunament (P.I.T.) April 10-13 in Portsmouth, Va. The P.I.T. is a premier showcase for college seniors pursuing basketball careers.

Anosike is the ninth Siena student athlete to play in Portsmouth since 2000. Ryan Rossiter ’11 was the last Saint to attend two years ago. Alex Franklin ‘10 and Edwin Ubiles each attended the event in 2010, and Kenny Hasbrouck ’09 Antoine Jordan ’06, Prosper Karangwa ’03, Dwayne Archbold ’02 and Marcus Faison ’00 also participated following their senior years. All eight went on to play professional basketball overseas, with Ubiles and Hasbrouck advancing all the way to NBA rosters.

Anosike enters the MAAC Championships second all-time in program history with 1,054 career rebounds and 26th in scoring with 1,222 points. His rebounding total is fifth best in league history and he is one of just nine MAAC players to reach both benchmarks.

Anosike’s achieved national acclaim for his success on and off the court at Siena. As a junior he became the first MAAC player to lead the nation in rebounding. For his efforts he was named First Team All-MAAC, First Team NABC All-District, a Lou Henson All-American, a NABC honors court selection, and was one of just four student athletes featured in the NCAA final four program.

Anosike was named Second Team All-MAAC Monday after averaging 12.9 points and ranking second nationally with 11.4 rebounds per game during the regular-season. He shot 50% from the field and averaged 37.1 minutes per game.

Each year for 60 years the P.I.T has invited 64 of the best college basketball players (seniors) from across the nation to participate in a four-day, twelve game tournament in front of representatives from every NBA team. The tournament drew the attention of NBA Scouts and General Managers in the mid-70’s when players like Dave Cowens, John Lucas, Walt Szczerbiak and Bobby Cremins came to Portsmouth to play. Soon the word spread and approximately 200 Scouts, General Managers and Representatives of all 30 NBA teams began to come to see players like John Stockton, Dennis Rodman, Tim Hardaway, Scottie Pippen and others. Today scouts from numerous international leagues have joined in on the annual April pilgrimage to Portsmouth. Over the years the P.I.T. has been a showcase for five of the 50 greatest players in NBA History (Rick Barry, Earl ‘The Pearl” Monroe, Dave Cowens, John Stockton, Scottie Pippen) and for many others who have gone on to NBA stardom.

CP… Same was said about Dennis Rodman and he is now in the Hall of Fame. Congrats to OD, it is a nice honor for him to be invited to Portmouth. The latest of a select few who have worn the Saints uniform to do so. Obviously this is all about him leading the nation in rebounding the last two years. Good Luck OD!

Let’s congratulate OD on his career. The invite is an honor. Does he have an NBA career, I along with no one else here knows, especially in light of playing under Mitch for 3 years. If he does make it, probably not long but still he would have made it.

Intelligent young man who endured 3 years of hell. Congrats for his endurance.

HD…Did Rodman wear his wedding dress and nose and ear rings during his induction? O.D. has ear rings but I doubt you’ll see him wearing a wedding dress or nose ring. O.D. will probably get a shot in the development league or Europe/S.A.

mrsiena, Rodman was dressed “appropriately” at his Hall of Fame induction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwbI15Ucl8s He is apparently now a diplomat having just returned from North Korea. So either way the future is bright for OD!

CP you are way out of line with this comment. Aside from his recent incident with Mitch OD has been a great student and player at Siena. Could he have been a better player? Possibly, but obviously not with the current coaching staff. Is there a professional career in his future? Absolutely, if he wants one. Again your comment is way off base!!!!!

There is no NBA in OD’s future. He will be successful in whatever other endeavor he chooses but I think he will ,like everyone else, find it difficult not to be center of attention anymore.

I think his lack of offensive skills will come back to haunt him, he will not be playing in MAAC anymore.when he takes that dribble the ball will be taken from him. He can’t take a 7 ft jump shot

I really believe all you guys who over praised him took away his incentive to work at his game. He deserves praise but with constructive criticism.

Now he says Siena is in a good bracket, c’mon man. Siena will not beat Marist, so we will not get to test OD’s theory about Niagara being inexperienced and maybe choking on the big stage as if Springfield is the big stage.

CP I agree that OD is not a very good foul shooter, but if you look at the statistics you will see that he basically improved his foul shooting every year at Siena. If you look at his last 20 games he’s around 70%. Everyone wishes he had developed more offensively, but to do that you need to be around someone that can teach that and clearly the current coaching staff can’t do that.

CP..I agree with about OD in a lot of respects….he has no chance to make it in the NBA….he can’t shoot at all.
And, in some ways I think the Siena program will be better off without him. He always seemed to be the last one down court which slowed Siena’s offense considerably. And, he was almost always the first option on offense which also bottle necked the offense which became stagnant and painfully predictable.
I will admit, a lot of that appeared to be the coaches fault also….another reason to let Mitch go…
On the plus side OD is a very good rebounder, but, I just don’t think that is good enough for him to play at the NBA level.
On the other hand, OD appears to be a very articulate and bright student who has a huge upside in the business world or whatever other career he sets his sights on…..